Campbell, Wentworth in dogfight of a runoff for Senate

Updated 7:13 pm, Sunday, July 22, 2012

Photo: Kin Man Hui, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth addresses an audience at the Alamo City Republican Women luncheon on Saturday, July 21, 2012. Wentworth is in a run-off in the state senate race against Dr. Donna Campbell.

Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth addresses an audience at the Alamo City Republican Women luncheon on Saturday, July 21, 2012. Wentworth is in a run-off in the state senate race against Dr. Donna Campbell.

Photo: Kin Man Hui, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Dr. Donna Campbell (center) greets guests at the Alamo City Republican Women luncheon on Saturday, July 21, 2012. Campbell is in a run-off in the state senate race against incumbent Jeff Wentworth.

Dr. Donna Campbell (center) greets guests at the Alamo City Republican Women luncheon on Saturday, July 21, 2012. Campbell is in a run-off in the state senate race against incumbent Jeff Wentworth.

Photo: Kin Man Hui, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Campbell, Wentworth in dogfight of a runoff for Senate

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State Sen. Jeff Wentworth personally apologized to his GOP re-election opponent, Dr. Donna Campbell, for releasing opposition research regarding her husband that she called trashy, tawdry, sleazy and out of bounds.

Wentworth called disclosure of a 1985 DWI conviction before their marriage a “regrettable incident” in the July 31 runoff campaign.

Four days later, much of the same information was disseminated by the Wentworth campaign, without the DWI references.

“It's going to be a dogfight,” Wentworth said last week. “It's going to be a light turnout, and it's just whichever candidate can pull more people out of their air-conditioned houses and go vote,” he said.

Early voting starts Monday in the showdown for the Texas Senate District 25 nomination, one of several unfinished races from the May 31 primary.

The quiet runoff is dominated by a nationally watched GOP fight to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, but the heavily advertised contest is producing tea-party enthusiasm that adds to Wentworth's worries as he defends the seat he's held since 1993.

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Wentworth was the top vote getter in the primary, after his campaign relied on aggressive ads against a third candidate, Elizabeth Ames Jones, who eventually endorsed Campbell.

A gloomy, 29-page dossier on Campbell released by the Wentworth campaign on July 3 included public records, news articles and comments saying Campbell's views on taxes were extreme and her roots in District 25 shallow. A consultant's narrative said Campbell has “phony residency” in the district, renting in New Braunfels and commuting to work as a physician in Houston — while maintaining a home in Columbus.

The home is outside District 25, which covers parts of Bexar and Travis counties and all of Comal, Hays, Kendall and Guadalupe counties. Campbell established residency in the district about 10 weeks before the filing deadline.

Campbell told a KTSA radio audience last week she's renting in New Braunfels because she hasn't sold her Colorado County home and can't afford to own two houses. She said she didn't do any “personal” opposition research on Wentworth and wouldn't have known what to do with any damaging information.

“This race is about issues,” she said. “It's not about Mr. Wentworth's closet or anybody else's,” she said.

On Wednesday, Campbell released a hand-delivered July 12 letter from Wentworth that apologized for some of the information released by his campaign, including details from Stan Campbell's DWI cases.

The incidents were “before y'all were even married,” Wentworth said. “Unfortunate events involving alcohol are all too common in our society, and my own immediate family is not immune from them as well,” Wentworth said, referring to his son's May 16 arrest on a similar charge.

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Runoff election: July 31

Early voting: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For information: Call 210-335-VOTE (8683)

Despite the apology, Wentworth's campaign reissued some of the dossier on Monday, prompting a fiery retort from Campbell. The senator “seems to have gotten past his moment of reflection. He is again spreading this trashy campaign research document to the local media,” Campbell said.

“Wentworth thinks he can score political points by revealing tawdry details of my husband's past, events that occurred long before he and I were married. That's out of bounds,” she said.

The dossier noted the Campbells were married in 2000.

The documents also included a stinging summary that cited Campbell's “extremist tax position, her lack of knowledge or preparation concerning local issues (water and electricity), her extremist position on the victims of rape and incest ...”

The reference to taxes concerned her advocacy for a federal sales tax when she ran for the U.S. House in 2010. The San Marcos Mercury blog reported that Campbell “stumbled” answering questions about utility issues at a July 5 forum. And Wentworth's campaign cited an Express-News report in criticizing Campbell's opposition to abortions in cases involving rape and incest.

“She really is an extremist. People don't know that because they've ignored her,” Wentworth said. Fighting back, Campbell said she's “stayed above the fray. We've got a campaign Texans can be proud to get behind ... I've had the values of Central Texas, of my district, all my life.”

She said Wentworth “was raised here and still doesn't have the values, so who's really the outsider here?”

Wentworth's campaign holds a financial advantage heading into the home stretch. In finance reports filed Monday, Wentworth had more than $256,000 available compared to $115,000 for Campbell. That was after spending nearly $300,000 from May 20-June 30, compared with Campbell's outlay of $12,400 and her contributions of $65,800.

jgonzalez@express-news.net

Correction: Opposition research released by state Sen. Jeff Wentworth last week on his re-election opponent did not include the same details as a previous release. A story on Sunday’s page B1 of the Express-News and on mySA.com incorrectly described the more recent report.